Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
This episode is sponsored by Cambly, an online learning platform dedicated to providing easy English learning services for English learners all around the globe.
In the beginning of our show, we will dedicate 10 minutes sharing our perspectives on the importance of learning multiple languages and experiencing. What? What happened? What happened? That's it. You're not supposed to read that part. Yeah, that's the show notes. That's not it. Anyway, welcome back to The Honest Drink. It's been a long time. So sorry for the long hiatus. But as you'll hear in the episode, it's due to a lot of positive life
life-changing events that we couldn't do this show for so long. But we're back now. We're back in the new studio. So a lot of new changes, a lot of big news we're going to drop in this episode. Lots of bombs. But first, the first little bit of a little tidbit of a little gem of new news is we do have a sponsor. And guess what, guys? Cambly. C-A-M-B-L-Y. Cambly.
Cambly is an online learning platform dedicated to providing easy English learning. We tried it out ourselves. It's really great. We get more into it in the show. We really think it's going to help you guys out. And we know a lot of you listeners are really into learning English, so...
We have a special promo code just for you guys. So the promo code is THD888. If you download the app, you register, you get five free minutes automatically. But with our promo code of THD888, you get an additional 15 minutes, which is... That's 20 minutes free! Ha ha ha!
That was good. I like that. But think about it. 20 minutes is a long time. Right now, hold your breath for 20 minutes. It's a goddamn long time. Yeah. It's a long time. Yeah. But you also get 20 minutes free. But you also get... Okay. So with our promo code, you also get your first month subscription 20% off. Guys, don't pass this up. Try it. You really have nothing to lose. And you're going to get 20% off.
And you're going to be speaking better than Justin, and you're going to be hosting your own show in no time. It's our kind of first welcome back episode after such a long time not doing the show. Better than ever. And we're happy to be here. So, without further ado, here we go. Let's go back to your living in a long time. We're up to see the bright eyes. We're living what's deep behind the music.
Here we go. Here we go. All right. Welcome. It really feels like a long time. Dude, it feels so good to be back. Oh, my God. I've been waiting. I've been waiting for this moment.
For a long time. Same. Cheers, guys. I've been waiting for this sip, too. This studio is amazing, by the way. This is the first drink we've had with each other since, like, in person before the lockdown, right? No, we met with George. Oh, yes. How could I have forgotten that? Yeah. That was a great episode, by the way. But what was that? That was like what? Like, how many months ago was that? It was like two and a half to three. That was June. Right? That was June. Three months. We've been away. Yeah. We have been away.
A lot of things have happened. I think, personally, I would first like to start off and say to our listeners, sorry for the wait. Yeah. But we have a lot of news to share. I guess, first and foremost, we're in a new studio. Yeah. We got an upgrade. We're in an awesome new studio. Finally, we just got it set up. Yeah. And Howie and I made the cut.
You guys are still on the show for now. We made the cut. What did you have to do to make the cut, Eric? Oh, man. Come on. Come on. A lot of sexual favors, obviously. Second news might be interesting for some of you. We have a freaking sponsor, guys. Woo-hoo!
We are officially a real podcast now. Is that how it works? We have a real sponsor now. This is a perfect match for us. We don't want to just peddle anything to our listeners. Should we get into them right off the top or do we want to go into some other stuff? Well, I think while we talk about this sponsor, I'm sure other news will come out during this conversation. Because we have the big stuff to share. Okay, so let's get into our sponsor first. Let's get that out of the way.
Our sponsor is Cambly. You can use it anywhere. Use it on your phone, use it on your iPad, use it on your computer. And we actually use it ourselves. Exactly. You've been using it like throughout the week, right? Yeah, I tested it out a couple of times. What can you do on the platform? One thing we can first establish before we start talking about what we experienced on Cambly is, I mean, let's talk a little bit who Cambly is, right? Because when they reached out to us and we wanted to do our due diligence and research about them,
I mean, personally, I found out that they're actually a global company, right? So they're based in California. Of course, the first thing Eric does is look up their worth. Exactly. The first thing Eric does. That's Eric, right? He's like, what are they worth? How established is this company? And they are. What are they worth, Eric? A lot. A lot.
A lot. Like what? Like you had a number. I don't know. A lot. Millions. Millions. You even said billions. A lot. A lot. No, no. But they have some proper, like all joking aside, they have proper investment behind them. They've been around for a while, for years already. So it's not like there's some fly-by-night thing that just popped up. They've been around for many years. They have over 45,000 online tutors. Of? We didn't say it, right? Yeah.
Of native speakers, of English native speakers. Yes. And before you go off and roll your eyes and think, okay, this is just another online education tutoring class, it's really not. That's what I thought at first. So I was hesitant. But the more we looked in and actual from our own experience, you can search by keyword
Any topic. And they'll have tutors that will talk to you about that topic or teach you about that topic. And you can build confidence with these real life topics. Because if you're traveling, you're going somewhere, you need to communicate. It could be life or death, but you can talk to people from that country. Because there's 45,000 tutors, right? All over the world in every country. Whatever country that you can be visiting, hopefully we can start.
visiting soon. But you can actually talk to them with real life scenarios. That's pretty cool. Yeah, definitely really cool. The reason why it aligns with us because our show is all about organic conversation, right? And learning through that conversation.
And honestly, I know this from my experience trying to improve my Chinese. Hands down, the best way to improve at a language is just to try to use it in the real world and talking to real people. The main thing they say is that a lot of students...
come to them lacking the confidence to speak English because they focused all on vocabulary and grammar, like the academics of learning a language. And this is where Cambly comes into play. You're talking to real people. Like, yeah, they're tutors, they're certified, but they're real people with real interests, with interesting lives. Some of them have like crazy careers and other things.
And by you talking to them, you are practicing real world experience, talking about any kind of issue you want to talk about, any topic you want to talk about. If you're looking to immigrate and you need to take like the IELTS test, I think it's like the IELTS test or the TOEFL. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing it correctly, but if you need to take these, they have courses for those. They have courses for public speaking. They have courses for business leadership and management. So if you want to improve your English speaking for your work,
Like they have courses for that where the tutor will walk you through. So it's really flexible. And that's what I really love about the application. What I think of learning a new language, I think about like being in school and the teacher being up there and then teaching you from, you know, the curriculum, the book and like all of the examples there in there are not relevant. They're like artificial manufactured scenarios. And
And so you're really just memorizing, you know, a database of things. And so when you're in a real life situation, you just can't think of those things because they don't, you know, actually apply, right? I have a question because you guys tried the platform and you kind of did the keyword search. So let's say that I was about to be in some type of business meeting and I need to talk to the global team. The global team is based in, you know, US, UK, somewhere in Europe.
And I want to practice my presentation. I want to actually get the jitters out, right? Could I use this platform to do that? Oh, sure. 100%, yeah. Yes. They have students from all around the world. They have students from South America, China, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the United States even. It's really global. And they have 45,000 plus tutors online. So I'm looking through this list of...
I'm looking at one that has a psychology background, one that has a Tai Chi background. Let me talk about these specifics. And I have a question around that. One has a post-production background, right? So correct me if I'm wrong. It sounds like all these folks...
are, you know, like, you know, great native speakers. They're conversational. They want to connect with people, right? That's what they want to do. And they have some area of expertise. There's 45,000 of them. So you can actually take the functional area that you want to be able to be more confident about and connect it with the actual English language skill and then bring these two worlds together and then apply it in a real life scenario. Exactly. Yeah. It's really that kind of flexibility with this app.
Yeah. So when I was going through, because I was trying to think from my perspective of when I was learning, when I first came to China, I was learning Chinese.
And one of the biggest reasons why I feel like I progressed in learning the language quickly was that I kept using the language. And obviously, being in China, I was able to speak Chinese often. But you had to force yourself to use it more. I had to, yeah. But then at the same time, at the company I was working at, I had a lot of coworkers that spoke... that had amazing vocabulary and amazing grammar, but just wouldn't speak it, wouldn't speak English. So I always thought it was like really...
interesting that you just said one of the tutors said that a lot of Asian students, especially Chinese, were great with vocabulary and grammar, but maybe not so outspoken when speaking English, right? They were just so shy. And it's just like, well, that's a great platform to practice speaking with somebody who is native. And actually, it's interesting. I had this one tutor named, I think it's Elif or Elif. She lives in Turkey and she was originally born in Canada.
And she's the psychologist that you alluded to. And so she actually is a psychologist. And in Turkey, she told me that, you know, the profession, it's just not that popular. And so it's hard for her to be working as an outsider coming in, in psychology. So she came on Cambly. She loves teaching. And so she's been doing it for like two years. But everyone...
everybody can see that she's a psychologist as well. So she gets all these students to come in and sometimes they just talk to her as if she's a psychologist. You know, it's so interesting. Were you working through any personal issues with her? I got through a lot of personal issues. Yeah, it was interesting because, and she also told me that she had native English speakers. Native speakers.
even using the platform to just talk. You mentioned that 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you can find a tutor, right? Which is true. It's like in your pocket. It's really easy to schedule a lesson or you can even have the option of seeing who's online right now without even scheduling and just going diving right into a lesson or a conversation whenever you feel like it. So that's why I thought it was really amazing is because you can have that instant gratification of education.
Education is a very different model. You can experience different human interaction. What I kind of appreciate about Cambly as well, look, we're all about staying realistic on this podcast. We're all busy. We all got jobs. We all got lives and families and whatever. We're not going to be day in, day out spending hours on this course. I don't really expect anyone really to do that unless maybe you're in school. So-
the course can go from 15 minutes to 30 minutes to an hour. It's up to you. It's flexible in that. But that's what I appreciate about it because when I was trying to learn Chinese, a lot of these courses would be like an hour and a half, two hours. And it's like,
Like you're like, you lied to yourself in the beginning and be like, okay, I'm really gonna, I'm gonna commit to this. I'm gonna spend two hours like every other day really working. And then you fizzle out and just, you waste that money. Yeah. Right. So I can relate to that. I want to add one more thing because, um, I mean, I, I know we are going like a bit, like, it's like, this is like the God's gift of apps, right? Like the way we're talking, but, but I want to say honestly, honestly, honestly, I,
I am really impressed with this app. I'm not kidding. Like, personally, if I just discover this app, I would probably talk about it. You know what I mean? Well, no, no. I believe you because all week, you've been hitting up me and Eric being like, guys, I just got off one more session with Cambly. Yeah. I said I was addicted. I said I was addicted. I'm like,
I'm like, Howie, you don't need to learn English. I know. Well, here's the thing. I kept getting impressed because, for example, at one time, I was just talking. My goal was to get to know the tutors. I just want to know who these tutors were. And I was trying to come from the standpoint from our listeners. And all of a sudden, one of the tutors was like, oh, so you're in China? I was like, yeah, I got a lot of Chinese students. Hell, I can even speak Chinese. And all of a sudden, there's a chat box, right? And she starts typing. And then, boom, chat.
Chinese text comes to me. I'm like, whoa, you speak Chinese. She's like, no, there's just a real-time translation. I'm like, what? Oh, shit. So it's actually, like I said, I was just constantly getting like wowed. Lots of cool stuff. Lots of cool stuff. Okay. So how do our listeners benefit from hearing this from us? Well,
we have a promo code because we are doing a sponsorship deal with them. Right now, it's just a one-time thing. We're keeping it a one-time thing. We're going to see how it goes. That's THD888. And what are you going to get? It does feel a little awkward doing a promo because this is our first time. But we got to get used to it if we want to be a real legit podcast, right? THD888. And what do you get with that, you say? Well, you're going to get 20 minutes free trial course. I have to correct you.
You get 15 minutes with a THD 888 promo code. We get five minutes as a new sign up. So together, all together, you get 20 minutes. You get 20 minutes. So same thing. Okay. Different saying. You end up at the same destination. You asshole. And that's all we're saying. It's like, just give it a shot. You have nothing to lose. So don't listen to us by using THD 888. You get 20 minutes free to try it out for yourself and see for yourself. We're excited about this.
Not because we're just passionate about English education. Obviously, we're not because we don't need to be. But throughout doing this show through the years, so many listeners have approached us and telling us that part of the reason why they like or enjoy our podcast is not only for what we talk about, but it also helps them with their English improvement, English learning, English comprehension. So we know this is probably a need for a lot of our listeners.
And this is why we have worked with Cambly and why we're promoting it to you guys. For you guys to try it out and see for yourself if it helps you. And that's that. Moving on, if we want to try to segue a little bit. Did you have something to say? Well, I was going to say that when we first heard about Cambly, it was kind of like good timing. Because I was already doing research about language learning. I was just about to get to that.
It feels so awkward. Okay, this is an awkward show, not only because it's our first show back in so long and we're knocking off some rust, right? Let's be honest.
But it's the first time we've actually had to do a sponsorship that we're proud and glad to do. But it's like being formal like that, which is kind of a little awkward for us. It's not really awkward. It's just that I think we felt it was awkward. And then we spent a lot of time elaborating on things in a way that felt unnatural when we could have just been natural about it.
But everything we said is true. It's all true. Yeah. It's just, we took 30 minutes to do it, you know, but like, like it was, you make the point and then you move on. But I mean, everything we said was spot on. It was just,
You know, it was a bit much, right? Got it. Got it. Well, first time around, you live and you learn. You live and you learn. Rust. But I will say something not specifically related to Cambly is, and I think this is where we wanted to go with it, is that, you know, we're always trying to learn. We just went through, you know,
I mean, we've been through two plus years of pandemic. We were in lockdown. You know, there's a reason why it's been difficult for us to get together. We've been doing a lot of soul searching. You know, we have been connecting offline and there's so many things we learned. And now we're out of this, you know, two month lockdown. I don't want our lives to go back to normal. I don't want to just kind of like it didn't happen like the blip in Avengers, right? There's so many things we talked about.
during the lockdown where we're like, okay, well, 发誓, like I'm going to change, right? I'm not going to forget these moments and, you know, I'm going to do things differently, value things, you know, a little bit differently. We want to double down on curiosity and learning. And so I think the values of human interaction, human connection, curiosity, and then during this pandemic, we can't travel. So
platforms that allow us to be able to expand our horizons and connect with people beyond our physical dimensions. The world is changing a little bit. And so I personally want to try some of these types of things. So I think if we have opportunities to engage with companies that are building these types of businesses in the future, I'd naturally be engaged with that. I'd be like...
New studio. Our studio is coming apart as we speak. Yeah. Okay. I'll get that fixed. Yeah. Something just came crashing down. But we keep learning, right? Yeah. We keep learning how to attach sound blankets onto the wall. Well, we didn't want to put nails in the wall.
And so we use fucking stickers, like literally stickers. We went the cheapest way possible. Okay. Yeah, no, absolutely. 100%. And one thing that keeps coming back to me from like things that we were talking about during the lockdown that I am continuing after is,
is the whole idea of, you know, living your life through your own eyes instead of through your screen. And that's what I'm excited to get back to with the show. Now that we're back, I guess to segue off of the whole Cambly thing, what you were about to say, Howie. Well, actually, you know what? To be fair, we both have huge news to share. Partly the reason why we've been kind of away. Yeah, this is a big factor in why we had to take such a long break from the podcast.
I mean, I don't want to out you. You go first, I guess? Well, I was going to say that... Because you have two. What I was going to say was I was doing research about language learning, especially if you're with newborns and the first couple of years while they're growing up. Tiger. Tiger.
I won't reveal it, but you're a tiger, blah, blah, blah. But basically, you know, learning, just the importance of learning languages and stuff like that. And so the sponsor kind of like popped up and it was like perfect. And so if you can kind of get to what I'm trying to allude to. Yeah. So I'm expecting kids end of the year.
You got twins. Plural. You got twins coming. Two boys. I do. I do. I have two boys coming.
Cheers, man. Congratulations, bro. Thank you. Honestly, that's huge news. If you've been following this podcast, you know that early on in a lot of our episodes were about potential parenthood, what we might be like as parents, the decisions we might make in terms of... Because we were reflecting on our own upbringings, and we were kind of just...
thinking and surmising of how we would treat our own kids had we had kids. Right. And so now it's becoming a very real thing. Two things I just want to point out real quick. So one is don't be shocked if some of the topics I bring up have to do with parenthood in the future. I might be a lot more interested in that kind of topic. So that's one. And two, I just noticed that Justin kept saying we, we, we. I don't know. It's just weird.
Yeah, so I am also expecting...
How crazy is that, right? Quarantine babies. Like, our life has been so crazy together. I know. Because, like, we've had so many things that synced up in our lives, me and you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And we didn't plan this. It's not like we planned to get, like, you know, pregnant at the same time or have kids at the same time. We really didn't. Yeah. We didn't even know each other was pregnant until, like, we... You're talking like you have the thing in your own tummy. It's, like, ridiculous. Isn't that how they say it, though, in the West now? Instead of saying she's pregnant, you say we're pregnant. Yeah, we...
Like, I think that's the, like the new thing. Right. So that's what I'm using. But I agree with you. I am not pregnant. I don't have to go through the pains of labor and carrying the child. So like, I think it's disrespectful even to say we're pregnant because I don't have to do really any of the work besides be there for my wife. She's going through all the hard stuff. Right. So she's pregnant. Um, I'm also expecting a boy, just one, but the birth time is just like,
They're scheduled to have, like, to give birth. Within the week of each other. Yeah. Which is crazy. Just about. Which is crazy. It's crazy. It's so weird. Like, I feel like we're grown-ups now, but I don't feel like a grown-up. Just wait. Wait till it pops out. No, that's what I've been struggling with lately, though, is, like, mentally in my own head, right? Like... I feel left out. No, Eric. However. Take a time out. However. We... You'll get there. We... Okay, if I use... And you're so much older than us. Yeah, that's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. Clearly much younger.
We, we are also expecting, but the we is collectively, and it's a very similar timeframe. It's crazy. It's also a boy, right? But it's, it's, you know, it's, it's someone very close to me, my brother, right? So he's expecting.
So, I mean, it's almost as good as me. So we have, we're going to have four new boys entering the THD family. That's crazy. Like late October or November, something like that. That's the exact same time. That's crazy. I know.
- Crazy. - I didn't know that. You just told me about this now. - I thought I told you. - No, I didn't know about this. I'm finding about this right now. - So using the US terminology, we can be like even your brothers. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Of course, Uncle Eric. - Is everyone having boys? - Yeah, it's crazy. - Yeah. - Are there gonna be more boys in this world than girls, you know, next generation? - Hopefully not. - Yeah, hopefully not. - I mean, how do you feel? Like, how do you feel about having a boy friend? - Yeah, okay, so what I was saying is what I've been struggling with, I guess,
to kind of get back into our bread and butter of this show, is it's time to really, really step up and be an adult because you have a child to look after. You have children to look after. You have a family to look after. So obviously, you're going to have those responsibilities. What I'm worried about is I don't feel... I still feel like a kid myself. And I think there's pros and cons to that.
I like the energy it gives me. I like the outlook and curiosity I continue to have being in that mental state. But then I worry about, am I going to be a responsible enough parent? And deep down inside, I feel like I know the answer, of course. When it comes time, when it comes to it, it'll be fine. But I worry about that, and it keeps me up at night because...
I still feel like there's a kid in me and I'm still a kid myself. And now I'm going to have a kid coming. And it's like, geez, how is a kid going to teach a kid? So let me ask you a question. Maybe ask two questions, right? The first question is, how could this disposition of...
you know, the positive qualities of kind of being childlike, how could that be a benefit? How could that be positive for your child? Well, we could talk about the downside too, right? But like, what is the, like, cause somebody else might think that like, I'm too serious, right? I'm too adult-like. Like, what am I going to do? I can't relate to my child, right? So it's sort of like, you're seeing it from different angles. And we do want to have that
that that complete angle but like what do you think the benefits are of like the of being childlike and is it only limited to like you know dealing with raising a kid because i think the one thing i want to be mindful of is to be able to relate our conversations to people that don't have kids right like because i i think that's part of the other premise of the show is there's so many things that are universal but like what are the benefits do you think of
being childlike with a child that other people wouldn't be able to offer their children? I feel like I'll be able to relate to my kid more. And I can be not only a father, but more of a friend, right? And I think, you know, maybe a lot of parents, and maybe this is a stereotype, right? It's certainly in times past, maybe now, not in these days,
But, you know, like the father was like the patriarch, the authority figure, right? Lays down the law kind of thing. And certainly I feel like I can do that when I need to. But I feel like I can be like my kid's best friend in terms of the negatives, right?
you know, maybe children need, don't really need a friend because they'll be able to make friends on their own. And what they need is a responsible parent that is laying down that law. You know what I mean? I don't know. You're like doing beer pong with the kids. Come on, come on. Yeah. Like, I mean, like when you look at fatherly figures around you, right? Um,
And not to get too personal, but I mean, we've met your father. He's super cool. Like, I mean, he can, I don't know if he can relate to you, but he can relate to us for sure. Right. We love chatting with him, but like, I mean, what, what, what do you think that like you need or, or if you're thinking on behalf of the child, so not maybe Justin, but like you're thinking on behalf of the child. Now you pretend to be that Justin jr. Um, you know what I can say, you know, first off,
I've had a wonderful dad. I've been fortunate to have a wonderful dad. And I say that. He's cracking up, cracking up. No, no, I love my father. I couldn't have asked, I wouldn't have, you know, even dared to think to even change my father. You know what I mean? Like as stupid as that sounds. But he didn't not come with his shortcomings either. Right. So it's like, he wasn't there all the time. He wasn't there most of the time.
He wasn't even there when I was born. And so I think every generation, they always say, this is so cliche, but they always say like, I want to give my child what I didn't have, right? Like every generation says that, whatever that thing is. In their own way though. In their own way. In their own way. And for me, I had plenty of freedom. And we've talked about this ad nauseum. You guys know this about me and my upbringing. I was very free. I didn't really have any guidance.
And being an adult now, I look back and I'm like, you know what? I kind of wish I had a little more guidance. Not this controlling guidance of maybe your parents, Eric, where they would micromanage and be like fucking tiger parents. Yeah. They forced me to use Cambly, I'm sure. How he's going to force both kids. He's going to get like two subscriptions. They're going to be wearing Cambly shirts and everything. But just a little more guidance. And
Not that he didn't provide any, but I just feel like they were too liberal. And I was too free, as crazy as that sounds, where I feel like at times I was lost and I didn't know and I didn't have an answer. And some things you figure out for yourself eventually by living. But some things I feel like I still haven't figured out, even at my age now.
And I feel like, you know, a little bit of support, a little bit of guidance would have helped me looking back now. And that's what I hope to give to my child. But that, again, is also where the fear comes in because then it's like, I'm a kid myself, so how am I going to guide my kid? You know what I mean? That's where that fear comes in. Yeah. If that makes any sense. Yeah.
Dude, you know me. You've been making fun of me the past couple of months. I've been on freak out mode. I'm surprised you still have hair on your head. Yeah, I've lost about half. Howie's always had good hair, though. He has. His hair's always been pretty strong. Yeah, I've been on freak out mode. I've been like, because it kind of hit me.
uh, obviously we're trying, we were trying, right. But then it hit me like a ton of bricks when I found out there were twins. Yeah. And to me, that's like a whole new ball game. It's like, suddenly I got two at the same time. They're going to be hell raisers. I got to deal with two at the same time. Are we going to be doing like football style, like milking like over here? So it's like, it's crazy thinking about it because, um, cause I always, I always had these fantasies about how I would be as a father. Um, because I think I've told you before, um,
I guess my ethos in how to raise a child would be sort of like the opposite of what my dad would do. Really? Yeah, I told you this. Yeah, I know, but like... I mean, growing up, I mean, I was never... Did your dad listen to this show, by the way? I don't think so. Was your dad really that bad, though? It's not that he was bad. It's just that he didn't provide what I needed. What did you need? I needed more emotional support.
You know? Because I feel like... Because you're high maintenance. I am very... You know me. You know me. He's a whiny little... He's a whiny little... He's a whiny little bitch. Now he's a whiny father of like two kids. He's gonna be like... He's gonna tell his kids that like, you're not giving me what I need. His own kids...
His kids are going to be like... He's going to be looking down at his two babies, his two baby twins, and be like, you guys aren't giving me what I need. You guys aren't supporting me enough. That's hilarious. Yeah. I just...
the way I viewed my father, I mean, he wasn't an asshole to me or anything like that. He just wasn't there. He wasn't around, you know? And when he was around, he was never really emotionally invested. And so he was always the disciplinarian and that was it. And then basically if there was like my birthday or if I got good grades, he would just give me like a video game. And that was like as much connection. You got video games? Yeah. You
You're a whole nother beast over there. You had a room. So yeah. You had a name. So for me, it was always like, you know, I was, I was missing that, that side from a father figure. Like I learned how to do a lot of man, quote unquote, manly things like shaving or like, you know, other things from friends, not from like my father or anything like that. So I don't know if you guys learned that from your parents or from.
siblings but I've never learned it period I still don't know how to shave to this day I don't need to shave I wing it every time I'm just like okay it just goes like this I just like move the razor around my face is that why your face is so patchy I just move the razor around I don't know the proper way to shave well anyway what I was trying to say is that I mean growing up I really thought about that and then I kind of created this whole I guess structure that I would raise my child in and
that's not about being like a tiger dad or anything like that, but it's more about being there. Like, it's, my big thing is I travel a lot for work, right? But I gotta think about how to reduce that somehow when they're growing up because I don't want to not be there. So, the things like that, it's like the opposite. You know what I mean? Like, I want to be like the opposite of what my father was. Well, a friend in Shanghai told me recently, and this made me feel better, and, you know, I trust this man's opinion. So,
Full disclaimer, he doesn't have kids himself, right? He's made a decision not to have kids. That's his own personal choice, you know, for whatever reason. But he's surrounded by a bunch of friends who have had kids and who are having kids. So he sees it all around him, right? He's like, you know what I've learned by kind of observing and just being a part of the lives of all my friends who've had kids is that
At the end of the day, they all come out pretty much the same. It's just how much mental stress do you put yourself through? Well, how much pain are you going to put the kids through, actually, if you think about it, right? Well, what do you mean, though? Well, okay. For example, one of the major topics that I have with my wife is education in the future, right? So, for example, we live in China, right? It's pretty obvious that the education system here is very different than what we...
went through in america from my understanding right and so we have a lot we have we have had a lot of um deep conversations about okay well let's you know let's talk about the future like what like do you want to have the kids go to school here you know public schools private schools international schools you know this kind of stuff okay should we go somewhere else as they get older do we move do we stay that kind of stuff so i think i mean these kind of um i guess future planning
They do give you pressure as a parent to make certain decisions. Right. But also, depending on your decisions will dictate what your child goes through. Right. So, yeah, but I don't I wouldn't necessarily agree that from the child's point of view, it would be any less or more pain.
You know what I'm saying? Like kids adapt and then they're given the situation they're given. Like who's to say like, oh, would I have gone through more pain in my childhood if my parents like made this decision versus that decision or if I went to this school versus that school? Like I don't think that's a fair way to frame it. Perfect example. I'll be specific. So the initial conversation I had with my wife, my perspective was,
what's the big deal? Might as well just go to, if we stay here in Shanghai, might as well just go to Shanghai school, like China schools. What's the big deal? Does it have to be international schools? Half the international school students that I have met living here are fucked up in the head. Yeah. Like why? You know what I mean? Just going to put it in public school. What's the big deal? Right. And then she was adamant. She was like, hell no. Do you, I'm not getting part of that Neidran. You know what I mean? It's like Neidran.
And it's like, you know, they'll be doing homework until like 10 o'clock at night and all they're doing is studying, studying, studying. Like, you want that for the kid? Well, it depends on what grade you're saying, right? At the early grades, the younger grades, like, it's not... They get homework too, man. Of course they get homework, but especially these days in China, it's not that competitive.
competitive and crazy in terms of in terms of all the workload they have to do it's like when you when you start getting to a certain grade level yeah then it's then it kicks in but my wife it's funny you say that because my wife was the complete opposite and i'm completely supportive of her in that decision and so her conversation with me was like okay early in the early stages
I don't want my kid to go to international school. And I was like, I don't want my kid to go to international school either. Number one, because you hear stories and you see examples. I don't think the kids that are coming out of international school
are coming out better. And sometimes they're coming out- - Sorry for those listeners who come out of international schools. - No, no, they're not coming out worse. But like what I think international school, and this is primarily through my experience seeing, like, because I have even family members, I know friends that come out of Hong Kong international school, right? My wife has more of the local mainland perspective of international schools.
And at least in Hong Kong, a lot of them kind of come out a little spoiled and they don't come out that well assimilated. Like the ones that come out of Hong Kong international school speak fluent English, but then they become too westernized and they're not that assimilated into the local culture because all their friends are kind of like English speaking, right? They only hang out with like expat circles, stuff like that. And I feel for me,
I don't want that to be the basis, the foundation of my kid. I want them to be able to merge between both cultures, East and West, seamlessly. And for that to happen is I think they need to go to Chinese public school first and kind of have that foundation of not only culturally, socially,
like language-wise, education-wise, so they know what that's like. And then later on, as they grow up, maybe start transitioning them to have some more international experience, get maybe more international education abroad, hopefully, right?
But my foundation is definitely wanting them to be able to assimilate seamlessly and integrate seamlessly into Chinese culture. That is the number one priority for me. Because I know, because my mother tongue is English, my background, my culture, right? We come from the States. So I know that at home, I'll be able to provide that perspective. I'll be able to provide that influence on my kid naturally without even trying.
It's them growing up here that I want them to have that foundation of first and then transition them off so they become more well-rounded. - Agreed. - One thing my father always said to me is that he regrets having immigrated when he did to the United States. - Too early. - Too early, right? Because he always looks at me, he's like, "I kind of failed with you." He says that. He's like, "I kind of failed with you because your Chinese isn't good enough. You don't have a good enough understanding of Chinese culture.
You're not as assimilated into Chinese culture as you should be. And he blames it on himself because I brought you to the America way too early. Eric, you're listening from an outside perspective. What are you thinking about what we're saying? Just not fortunate enough to have two kids coming. Eating away, spending all my money. I'm so jealous. I'm kidding. I am jealous.
Yeah, it's interesting. It's interesting to hear your perspectives and to imagine what our listeners, right? Because that's a massive, I don't know if it's a massive population of people, but there's a decent amount of people that probably tune in sometimes and kind of hear the dialogue that we have.
I am curious, right? Like what the listeners are thinking. And then, you know, when this comes out, like to get their perspective, I'm fascinated by that. And then I hear a lot of,
uh, dialogue with you to like around, like, I can see how much you care. So there's this, this paternal instinct, right? Like you really care. And I have to imagine that's a feature of the human species. Like, um, like however you experienced your fathers, I can't imagine that they weren't thinking the same ways that you are right now.
And when circumstances unfolded and their own life, you know, choices and needs and circumstance fortunes happened, then things unfolded a certain way. And then, you know, you have a collision, I suppose, of history. And then things kind of, you know, and you guys around now, you're going to be fathers and stuff like that. I can tell how much you care.
I also hear a lot of like, I want this or like no way this or definitely this kind of stuff. And it's like, you know, should we be imposing so much of our, um,
you know, our perspective on it, you know? And so I don't know, like I, it's, it's hard for me to say, I think coming from you though, that's kind of hilarious. Yeah. Right. Because just imagine when, whenever one day it comes, if you have kids like talk about imposing things, I feel like you're going to be the mother of all kind of like pre-planning. This is going to be the way. Yeah. Right. Do you think, do you think you would be, I mean,
One day they're going to make a movie and it's going to be kind of like Will Smith and Venus and Serena Williams, that kind of stuff. No, I'm kidding. No, I don't know. I think what I'm trying to decipher is what is real and what is just a figment of our imagination. I mean, there have been people being born for tens of thousands of years and we're still fucking up.
right? People still hate their parents, right? So I'm trying to just understand like what I appreciate about my parents, you know, what sacrifices that they had to make and the decisions that they had to make and think of it in just a different way. And I haven't figured it out. I think if there's one thing that I want for my child, and this is something that comes from my own experiences,
If there's just one thing, I just want them to be comfortable in their own skin. And I think if I can do that for them somehow or influence that, then it gives them a better shot at things. Of course, I don't want this person to starve or suffer and all that kind of stuff. All that stuff goes without saying. But I want them to be able to solve their own problems. I think that would be the one thing for me.
Well, I agree. That is the best tool you can give them. It's not only give them the confidence to solve their own problems, but the mindset to do and the attitude to solve their own problems. Right. Yeah. And you know, for skills and stuff like that, you know, we can teach them what we can, but I think the next generation of skills is going to be beyond us. It's like, we're not going to know. They're going to have to learn a lot of that themselves, living and growing up in that world. Right. Like, like we're just not going to know, like,
these new things that are going to come about, you know, in the next generation. We're going to be behind the times. They're going to be teaching us in many ways. For sure. But it will be probably a platform like Cambly. Something like that. Bring it back. Good job, man. Bring it back. We haven't made it clear enough. This episode is sponsored by Cambly. By the way, there's a prize. We're just so excited. By the way, Cambly is giving us a prize for the one
host that most clearly articulates the value proposition. That's why Howie was trying so hard. So you made this into a competition. Yeah. Wonderful. I love it. Love it. Yeah. You hear that? Okay. See? Yeah. But I think, you know, and this ties into a theme that at least Howie and I feel, maybe you less so, Eric, because I just feel like you're more in denial of having that conversation.
ties into our optimism about the future. And we've spoken about this ad nauseum. We don't have to keep beating this drum. But it does come back time and time again.
No, but especially now. Don't lie to me. Tell me you haven't thought about that since knowing that. 100%. I mean, I was going to say that I feel like everything changed for me. And I mentioned this to you. Everything changed for me that second I first heard their heartbeat in the hospital.
when doing this on a gram, right? Everything changed for me. All of a sudden, I was really focused on the future. Like more than before. Like before it was more like, yeah, I was thinking like in a more negative way. But now I was thinking, no, no, no, I got to prep them. You know, like there's more than myself now. It's like I have to prep kids, you know? Well, let me ask you this. Have you ever been more concerned with war than you are today?
100% no. Right now, it's peak. And I think a lot of that has to do with we know that we have kids on the way. At least for me, 100%. And Eric's like, stop buying into that mumbo jumbo. What I would say with that, just to jump in for a moment, is that when you think about war and pandemics, I think we delude ourselves or we're fortunate enough to not
view them as features of like, of exist of mankind or, you know, of human existence. Sorry. And so, no, I'm not equipped to be able to deal with that mentally, but I don't view it as like, oh, the world's getting worse or whatever it is. I view that pandemics, I mean, particularly pandemics, right. It was something that been kind of trying to learn more about recently is that they happen and,
Respiratory pandemics, these types of things happen generally every 10 or 20 years. And then the very serious ones happen every 50 to 100 years. And wars, I mean, you know, I think we've become more civilized, but then our capabilities are much greater, right? So the wars get bigger and bigger. But we've had conflict and brutal conflict, I mean, for decades.
I mean, you know, as long as humans have existed. So that's a feature of things. And I think we're just really, really fortunate. But like, I mean, if that kind of stuff happened, if you lived in, you know, the Ukraine or places like that, I mean, it's I can't imagine. I know we would adapt. Right. We would be like survival. Right. But, you know, it's not an easy thing to think about, especially if you have kids on the way.
Yeah, it really puts The Walking Dead into perspective when you're walking around with a baby and it's about to cry. And you're like, don't cry, don't cry. Oh my God, yes. Don't cry. I've thought more about zombie movies lately than I should have. Because it's this idea and it's this dramatization we have in our own mind about going to the worst place possible and it's like some apocalyptic doomsday scenario, right? And then you have to like...
bring a life into this world and you play games with yourself and clearly we're influenced by Hollywood and how they portray everything. But who is Hollywood influenced by? That's what I want to know. We're influenced by Hollywood, but who the fuck was Hollywood influenced by?
Well, Hollywood, I would say, I would guess, I don't know, right? Like Hollywood, the writers are influenced by obviously real- No, real world things, but they take those real world things and they exaggerate it because they need to create entertainment. Yeah. Right? I mean, that's how we all, that's how we're all influenced by it. I mean, what are, like, what, like, I mean, I don't want to go on a digression, but I'll just pose one rhetorical question. Like, what are the differences between the themes from Hollywood versus Shakespeare and
you know versus the iliad versus i would say there's no difference there probably isn't any difference right well like shakespeare was the hollywood of his day yeah they just have better special effects now we're talking about superheroes and marvel characters um i would have to say personally for me though um what i would highly recommend um did you guys like the breaking bad series
I couldn't get into it. Really? Yeah. I mean, you know, I get into stuff. I rave about stuff, but I could not get it. That was one I couldn't get into. No, no, I understand that because for me, I could never get into The Wire. Yeah. But then you have so many people that swear by The Wire. The Wire is the best show in history, right? Yeah, you love The Wire. Yeah, the number, like Shakespeare level. So I totally understand. To me, Breaking Bad was,
was like that level yeah that level i should give it a chance then yeah so like you know but the spinoff of breaking bad was better call saul yeah and i almost like better call saul even better than really wow yeah i know it's really good but i haven't seen one episode of that yeah it's so good
Like how we segued into that. And by the way, we're sponsored by Marvel. We're sponsored by AMC. No, because we talked about The Walking Dead. We're sponsored by Wanda. We'll keep the listeners guessing. I mean, we haven't been together in over two months. Like, what's been going on? What do you mean? We just talked about what's been going on. You're freaking out about your children coming. Yeah.
Like, okay, what's your, like, I mean, what's it going to be like? I mean, I'm the one that's going to be more sort of in a normal pattern, but, like, I mean, you guys are going to be just pushing, you know, like, I'll get to meet the kids, right? You're going to be the crazy uncle. Please don't call all three of them, Eric. I mean, two is enough, okay?
You're going to be the crazy uncle. Uncle Eric's got to come over and take care of the kids. Help out, man. They're going to be like. Oh, you're going to let Eric see your kids? Justin, you're going to cry? I'm not going to let Eric like, you know, 10 meters from my kids. Justin, your child is going to cry and be like, Eric was the father I wish I had. Right. Right.
Well, okay, I'll say something that's been a bit different for me. So ever since I got back from all my quarantines, I've been doing quarantine like crazy for the past couple months. Every single meal I have, except for one, I've prepared myself.
So I'm trying to control the intake of like the type of food I'm putting in my body because I feel like I need to get healthy like as soon as possible because I have these kids coming. So I've been living very unhealthily before. So I've been exercising every single day. There's not one day I've taken a day off and then eating proper foods regularly.
Every day. And so far, I have not dropped the ball. I've never done that in my life. So that's interesting. Well done. Well done. I just feel like I have to be healthy. I have to be healthy. I have to.
Yeah. You know, it makes sense from an evolutionary perspective, because if you're not, like, healthy, then you can't really protect your kids. And if you can't protect your kids, they're not going to survive and have their kids, and then eventually it's game over for the lamb family, you know? You had been, you know, at one point you were, you know, you were pretty ripped, you know, back in the day. You know, pretty handsome. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
I gotta stop you there. When was he ever ripped? I don't know. Do I need to take out my photos? Yeah. Anyways. Do I need to take out my photos? Don't be jealous, Justin. Okay. But you struggled. I mean, like we've been doing the show for years and like you've really struggled and like we've encouraged you and stuff like that, but you haven't been able to make it stick. And it sounds like at least recently that you've, you know, you've created some routines, some rituals and stuff like that. Right. And that, I think that's like the Holy Grail for every single person. Yeah.
is that there's things that you've never been able to do, and then somehow one day it clicks and you can. So what's that transition? What can we learn from that? So this is a perfect segue for me to add this one thought that I wanted to bring up. We're looking for fitness sponsors, by the way. Because like I said, every single meal...
We've gone crazy with sponsors. We've gone sponsor hungry. We get one little taste of one. We're like, we want more. This is sponsored by people. They're not even paying us. So, like I said, every single meal I've had, I've prepared myself. And I've been trying to broaden my culinary skills to eat healthy foods.
And I haven't ordered any, like, why am I? Delivery from my favorite, like, I haven't had Mexican food. Like, you know me, a Mexican. Yeah, that's crazy. You haven't had Mexican food in how long? Since end of August.
Right. So it's been a while. So this is a month. Huh? This is a month. Yeah. It's not even. But what I'm saying, but this is coming from somebody who went Mexican two to three times a week. Yeah, yeah. You're crazy about Mexican food. Like four times a week, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so... But you can lose weight on Mexican food. I know. It's proteins. I know. You can limit the carbs. My thing is that I don't want to put food in my body that I'm ordering takeout because I don't know exactly what they're putting in it.
And so I'm at that point right now, you know? I give you like a few more weeks. You always fizzle out. Well, yes, exactly. You always fizzle out. Exactly. You go hardcore. You go super hardcore for a limited amount of time and then you fizzle right out. You always do this. So what I'm trying to get at, what I'm trying to get at is I've never done it this way where I'm literally preparing every single meal that I'm eating, right? But it's going to like, okay, I'm not trying to, you know, to...
predict your failure. Oh, I am. Right? But I do think one thing I just want to note as an observation is that you're talking in extremes. And I think that's one thing just to note because you're like, oh, I never. That's always the sign. I never. That's always the sign. And then the one day you break it, then...
You fall off the wagon, right? Exactly. It's being able to learn how to fall off the wagon, but then not completely crash. Which is where I was going to get to. He's got it all figured out. He's got it all figured out. I do. I really do. Because one thing that I wanted to prove to myself is that I'm not reliant on those restaurants. Because that's how I felt before. That I needed restaurants.
to eat those delicious foods and make myself feel happy. Right? Like, I needed to eat... You needed to enjoy your meals. Sponsored by... Which brings me to Shake Shack! But Shake Shack is fucking good. So what I'm trying to get at is, I just need to prove to myself that I did not need to rely on it. 90% of the food I ordered were Western. Sponsored by... So...
Brought to you by Red Lobster. So basically the... So bad. You got to edit out all this shit. So basically... Let me just get this out. Okay. So yeah. So I've been doing this for a while and then I realized that I'm not reliant. I'm pretty happy. I feel really good. I enjoy the food I've been eating. So I've been cutting out red meat because I know that's not good for me. Okay. So I've been eating fish. Because of the gout? Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
Well, just in general, I just don't digest beef that well. And the one time, remember, I shared a photo of steak? Yeah. That's the only time I had... Your cheat meal. My cheat meal, exactly. Pathetic cheat meal. That's the only time I had it, and I felt like shit. No cheat meal should ever have broccoli on that plate. The moment broccoli touches your plate, it is no longer a cheat meal. Like, let's just get that out of the way first. Yeah. You're learning to...
address like maybe certain habits that you have that have built up over a long period of time that you're
maybe not happy with or that you'd like to change and you're figuring out like you're learning like i mean you are i think always knew how to cook and stuff like that right like whereas me i would know what to do but you had that basic skill you've taken some of the things in your toolbox and you've applied them to your situation and you had some problems right like the gout and all that stuff that kind of precipitated or not precipitated but probably encouraged you
And then, you know, having kids is like the accelerating factor. So you found kind of like a why.
you took some of the tools that you have, like the how, and then you implemented some routines and stuff like that, right? And so like that process to me, that learning process is powerful because then you can start doing that in other contexts. And then maybe you go through another period where you're just eating meat and you get gout again or whatever. It's like meditation. It's like you fall off the wagon and you pick yourself back up. And it's that behavior of like being able to be aware and recognize that you fell down. And
And then picking yourself up. And tying it to our last episode with Dr. George Fu, that's resilience. That is a part of resilience, right? Getting back on the horse. That's right. And I did notice, because I have not built these types, we talk about habits all the time, and I'll be the first person to say that I'm probably the worst out of everybody with good habits. And so I haven't done these type of lifestyle changes in a long time, even though we talk about it. But I personally have not.
until now. And one thing that is sort of like the light bulb moment that I haven't had in so long is that once you get past that week or so of every day building that habit, it becomes kind of easy. And it's a beautiful thing. No, it's interesting that we got onto this topic because it really does tie back to, I think,
Earlier on we're saying kind of like what do we want to pass down? What are the tools we want to give to our kids? And I think
by far is resilience because look shit's gonna happen they're not gonna have like shit's gonna like happen in their lives right sooner or later shit is always gonna happen they're gonna fall off the horse some devastating thing is gonna happen to them they'll get thrown off by something like not even yeah everyone knows every single person on earth does right it depends on you
degrees of magnitude, but everybody faces adversity. And it's the people that can get back on the horse that succeed, and it's the people that don't. Honestly, when you read about really successful people, and we all know the famous successful people, but there are even more successful people who are not famous. And
when you learn their stories and you see what they've gone through, the biggest difference between them and anybody else is that they kept trying after their failures. It really is. I'm not saying this to be cute. I'm not saying this to be cliche or to try to sound wise. It really is the truth. The biggest difference...
between successful people and people who you might think are not successful is really the successful ones keep going. They keep going. And eventually, some of them get there. And nine times out of 10, they had a fucked up childhood. That's true. And, and, and, and, and. Yes, all very true. And there's lots of- But by that logic, Eric would be successful. And look how he's turned out. Yeah, exactly. Absolutely.
absolutely right on right on right on justin you're wise um but uh and and um there are yeah i mean like the people that are successful they kept trying they all they all failed there's no one that succeeded without failing and and there are a lot of people that never became successful but fucking kept trying yeah i might be one of them
I'm just kidding. But if you listen to Ray Dalio and his principles of success, that's also kind of what he talks about as well. I have this, I had this, I don't think I've ever talked to you about this, but as a joke, I was joking with my wife. I was like, cause we were talking about how like, you know, we're going to be the great, great parents, really open, supportive of whatever direction the kids go, all this stuff. Right. And I'm like, you know what? I think I'm going to purposely fuck them up. Like I'm going to be a distant dad. I'm going to be an emotionally distant dad. I'm going to be like abusive. Right.
And just so they have something to fucking hate. Again, going to the extremes as you always do. It's a joke. It's like they have something to hate. So when they can hold on to this as they become an NBA superstar or as they become like super successful. Forget about NBA, okay? The genes rule us out. You know what I'm talking about, right? I know exactly what you're talking about. And this leads to, you know, something that I've thought about and that I kind of have a problem with is
This kind of like, you know, you hear about this, especially in the West. You hear about this, well, even here now, maybe a little bit, is that you hear about this kind of new age of parenting and it's like fully supportive. Coddling. Coddling. Like you can do anything, like you set your mind to, you can accomplish anything you ever want. I think that might be dangerous. I really do because like I think what I would tell my kid is,
Like, I don't think I would tell them, like, you can accomplish anything. You can do anything. You're the best. You can do anything. Because the moment they fail and they will fail sooner or later at something, like, it destroys that whole worldview that you built up for them. Then what do you leave them with? I think the better thing to do is to tell them, like, look, you're going to be great at some things and then you're going to suck at some other things. That's normal. That's fine. Everyone is like that. Okay?
But don't let the things you suck at or the failures you have get you down and stop you in your tracks. And be realistic. Like, look, you're going to be good at some things, and you're really going to suck at a lot of other things. And let that be their reality. And I think that will help them navigate the world much better in a much more even keel way. Look at this fucking Dr. Dad over here. He doesn't even have a kid out yet, and he's freaking Dr. Dad preaching. I'm Dr. Phil. I'm like...
It's always easier when you don't have them. I'm totally Dr. Phil right now. Preaching out there. Preaching. Preachy preach. Everybody listen to Dr. Dad over here. Hey, I got a kid coming on the way. I'm going to preach away. You know what I mean? I've got friends that have kids. I'm preaching away. You are an authority in childbearing.
I mean, but it's funny, right? Again, it's like we get so passionate about it and you're like, okay, you know, this is how it's going to be, right? And then you think that's right, but maybe that's not even the right approach, right? No, of course. Like, we can always be wrong and time will tell.
But like, what can you do in the moment? What can you do? You can only make the best decisions you feel, you know, are the ones. Like, what else can you do? What else do you really have control over? Yeah. But I mean, that is, you know, like, I mean, to reference Matt Beadle,
I think that was, you know, the premise of what he was saying. It's like, hey, you're going to be good at some things. You're going to not be good at other things and spend time to make those things you're good at like superpowers because that investment in those, you know, over time is going to make you like amazing, amazing. And then the world through beeglasses. Right. And then the dwelling on the things you're not good at is not going to like improve you.
Because you're only going to see very marginal improvements in those things. Yeah. Well, worse than that, like you draw on the negative and you don't make improvements in anything because you get in this negative vicious cycle. Yeah. I think that for the, if you've got any like basically glaring weaknesses, like you need to work on them to get them to the point where you're just like tapping, like you're even. Yeah. And then invest in,
at the same time, in your superpowers. Like, you know, like if you can't, if you just can't get along with people and you've got fucked up issues, then you've got to address that shit before anything, right? But at the same time, everyone has these strengths. If you put energy into it, it compounds over time, then they're going to be those, I think you call them hidden superpowers. And then, you know, you'll be more equipped and you've got more tools to help you be resilient. Yeah, you're quite adept at preaching, so you should keep...
building on that. I'm amazing at that. What was it? Preaching? No, but that was him, right? Judge? You're the judge, right? Yeah, I'm the judge. Dude, we've all been preaching. Okay, none of us are innocent of preaching. This show is about preaching. Sponsored by the Preachers United. Sponsored by the Vatican.
Just imagine that we get to a certain like, like level where nonstop every five minutes, we're like, talk about something sponsored by just nonstop. Like we totally let it get to our heads, you know? God, it's good to be back. Like I need this in my life. Like, okay. I don't know, you know, what our listeners get out of it. You know, some of them seem to get a lot out of it. But for me, I get a lot out of doing the show as we go through this next stage and next chapter in our lives.
of parenthood i think this is something to help anchor me so i don't get too off base and and it brings me back to center and a lot of it has to do with you two and having this conversation with you two and hearing your perspectives and keeping me in check a lot of it has to do with the guests we bring on the show and the great conversations we have with them and a lot of it has to do with the listeners that listen to us and give us their feedback and
it also keeps me in check in terms of like where we're going and, and our responsibility to not only them, but to the quality of the show itself. Yeah. I think with this new studio, I feel like you, you pressed upon the idea of, you know, the future, like humans put together these artificial things like human connection and community, you know, with the audience and with the listeners, with us, like these are the things that help us navigate, navigate,
right and make sense of this messy thing like you talk about like the way you like to put it like this messy thing we call like being human and like i get you right because like we're just trying to make like decent decisions we're just trying not to fuck things up right because we're trying not to fuck things up where they're like like irrecoverable yeah yeah yeah i mean and that's such a that's such a base like that's such a core principle because if you you um
you know, study investing in these things. It's like, one of the key principles is like, don't be super emotional when you need to make important decisions and then like, don't fuck up big because you're going to keep, you know, making incremental gains but if you get wiped out then you got zero and then you're done. Then it's like, it's like Donkey Kong. It's, you lost. It's like fucking up is understood. Like, you're going to fuck up but just fuck up is,
in the way you can fix it but don't fuck up so bad where you can't fix it don't fuck up so bad where the game you pull the plug on the arcade game right it's like you lost right like totally like absolutely that's how that that is how it is and um yeah i mean i think this is what the show is about too is just like keeping us we talk about this just like like just kind of like slapping us each other in the face and be like hey come on all right don't be a dumb ass yeah
The good thing is there are plenty of dumb decisions we're going to be making in the future.
And that's part of life. And we'll get back on the horse and keep doing this. And we'll talk about it on the show. That's the great thing about it. As long as like, you don't make like catastrophically disastrous decisions, you're okay. Cause then you can learn and improve. But if you make catastrophically bad decisions, you kind of fuck. And it's just a fine line between the two. It is a fine line. It's such a fine line. Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes it's like, it's like, it's like one extra drink.
It really is. Cheers. Cheers, guys. Well, okay. It's good to be back. I really appreciate everyone that's listening, their patience for sticking with us, even throughout this whole time that we didn't have any new content for you guys. And, yeah, I just really appreciate that, so thank you. But I guess to close it off, I'm Justin. And I'm Howie. I'm Eric. Be good. Be well. Peace. The rest of the set will be around.
I wish she was high, high, high, high in the middle.